Oryzomys legatus Thomas 1925

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Cricetidae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 955-1189 : 1150

Oryzomys legatus Thomas 1925

Oryzomys legatus Thomas 1925 , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 15: 577.

Type Locality: Bolivia, Tarija Dept., Caraparí, 1000 m.

Vernacular Names: Tarija Oryzomys.

Distribution: E Andean slopes of SC Bolivia and NW Argentina.

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Considered conspecific with O. capito (= O. megacephalus ) (Cabrera, 1961; Hershkovitz, 1960), viewed as a probable synonym of O. nitidus ( Gardner and Patton, 1976) , or retained as a species ( Gyldenstolpe, 1932; Mares et al., 1989 b; Massoia, 1975; Musser and Carleton, 1993). Musser et al. (1998) acknowledged the morphological distinctiveness of legatus but ultimately arranged it within a broadly defined O. russatus , a related form of the nitidus species group. This proposed relationship finds no support from trees derived from cytochrome b sequences ( Patton et al., 2000), in which specimens of legatus fall among those of O. nitidus proper, not with O. russatus from SE Brazil. In view of the pronounced morphometric differentiation of legatus and nitidus in SC Bolivia (Musser et al., 1998:208-218), we follow Patton et al. (2000) in regarding both as species and stress that the lack of reciprocal monophyly between the respective data sets invites further study.